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Midland WR-300 "Version 0"
The '''Midland WR-300 "Version 0" '''weather alert radio was either an extremely limited-released or unreleased version of the WR-300 weather radio. This version of the WR-300 exhibits many changes, including missing features that the standard WR-300 models have. The existence of this is radio is known through a series of product guides that were inserted into early 2000's models of the WR-10 and Version 1 of the WR-100 in 2002. Changes from standard WR-300 models The one of the biggest overall changes is the shell of the radio: instead of the normal gray that most, if not all, WR-300’s exhibit, Version “0” features an entirely black shell, similar to what would be used for the WR-400 nearly 15 years later. Another difference is that the “Advisory” light, a yellow color on modern WR-300’s, is replaced with the green “Statement” light, similar to known early versions of this radio. Also, the text at the bottom of the reads “SAME DIGITAL WEATHER HAZARD ALERT MONITOR” instead of the now used “S.A.M.E. DIGITAL WEATHER / ALL HAZARDS ALERT RADIO WITH AM/FM.” Additionally, the "AM/FM" and "RADIO" buttons did not exist on the "Version 0" radio, instead replaced with the "MIDLAND" logo on a raised bezel, instead of the dropped bezel where these two buttons sit on all other WR-300 models. LCD screen The biggest change may be exhibited in the LCD screen. Instead of two unified fonts throughout the LCD display, there appears to have been two fonts with different thicknesses or boldness depending on the use. The time would have taken up the most space, taking up the bottom left quadrant entirely, instead of being in the upper right corner, though the AM/PM indicator is in approximately the same place relative to the location of the time (i.e., to the upper left of the time). The "WEATHER" that would appear when listening to the weather band was approximately in the same place, but slightly less bold than the time in the "Version 0" model and of a smaller font. The channel indicator is larger in the "Version 0" model, but approximately in the same place. Instead of the small "WX" appearing above the channel though, the "MHz" symbol appears to the right of the channel number in "Version 0". Finally, the list of indicators that is normally present at the bottom the the WR-300 would have been located in the center, between the "WEATHER" status and the time/channel. The first indicator (from left to right) would have been ALARM, assumedly for the type of weather radio alarm (possibly renamed SIREN later), followed by TIME, which sits directly above the clock. Next is the low battery indicator, which is horizontal and faces to the left with a line through it. After that is the bell, which is similar to the final bell, though the bell on newer radios is shaded black and not clear. Lastly, the SNZ indicator shows when the radio's alarm clock was set to snooze. It does not appear that the SINGLE / MULTIPLE / ALL COUNTIES feature was not implemented at the time of "Version 0"'s creation. Similarities Despite these massive changes, the general shape of the radio looks almost exactly like all other WR-300 radios that would have been produced. Many things are the same as well, including the AM/FM functionality, the ability to turn specific SAME codes on or off, and the 20 county code storage capacity. It is unknown how the radio functionality would have worked though, given that the buttons on this model are missing.